HAL air vs. consolidator vs. DIY - Pros? Cons?

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience booking air for HAL cruises and can provide insight on the process.

We need to fly BOS-AMS for a Rotterdam (the ship *and* the port) cruise in May. The two itineraries I find most attractive are Delta nonstop at about $1,000 pp and Icelandair via KEF at about $800.

I wouldn't be looking seriously at Delta (more $ for less legroom - 31" pitch vs. Icelandair's 32") except for one thing: Delta offers a $99 (each way) upgrade to Comfort Plus, with several perks - 35" pitch, priority boarding, dedicated overhead bin, front seating so you're among the first off the plane. At $1,200 this beats anyone else's premium economy by far. (Icelandair's is a joke: $1,500 pp for only 1" more legroom and few perks. Everyone else is over $2,000.)

We're working with a TA new to us, who says she has a lot of experience with HAL but can't give us definite answers about air. She's encouraging us to book our air through HAL, as she says HAL will protect us from schedule mishaps *even if we don't buy HAL's (overpriced) ground transfers*. That sounds too good to be true. (I give her points for not pushing us to buy a consolidator ticket, even though I know she'd make a few bucks on it. She says there's no point in using a consolidator unless you can save a lot.)

Questions:

1. The airfares are higher than I'd hoped; I had thought May was shoulder season for Europe. Are these prices what you'd expect? And do you think there's a chance of a sale in the next few months, or should I lock one of these in now?

2. If we book air through HAL or a consolidator, is it 100% certain that we'll be able to (a) earn frequent flyer miles and (b) choose our own seats? If it's not always certain, can we find out if it's true in our case before we commit? Apparently the no-penalty-cancel-within-24-hours rule "does not apply to travel agency tickets and bookings" (per Delta's website).

Apparently the way to upgrade to Comfort Plus is simply to select a Comfort Plus seat during the booking process. If I do my own booking online, it's easy. Our TA thinks it's 99.9% certain that we can select our seats if we go through HAL. But I want 100% certainty (since I can get it with a DIY booking). I don't want to hear, after it's too late to back out, that we're stuck with two expensive 7-hour flights at 31" seat pitch.

So...

3. Are we really safer (in terms of delays) booking air through HAL than on our own? We're planning to arrive in AMS a day early anyway.

4. In general, is there much danger in planning to fly home on disembarkation day (provided the flight is late enough)? We can save about $300 on Delta by flying that day vs. the next day.

Our TA got us nice perks for the cruise itself and has been very good about communicating; I'd like her to get credit for as much of our trip as possible. But not if we can't get the same price/service deal from the airline that I could get myself.

Thanks for your thoughts.

It doesn't cost you anything to find out what airfare through HAL will be, so why not do that? If you want to arrive a few days ahead of your cruise, you will be able to do so and can enjoy a bit of Rotterdam before boarding the ship.

We chose HAL's air for our trans-Atlantic because it was 1/3 of the price we could get on our own for a one-way to Europe. You certainly don't need to use HAL's ground transfers, just book your own.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Delta vs Icelandair...

We had a horrible experience on Delta, a 757 ER, Extended Range... means they squished in more seats, and horrible seats... these seats had almost no foot room under the seat in front of you because of hanging entertainment boxes.. and the reclining mechanism had the seat bottom slide forward rather than be hinged at the back rest/seat bottom line. It was a non-stop flight JFK to Pisa, 8 hrs and DH spent 5 hours standing in the galley. Never again.

Now, I don't know what your plane type is, but if you can get Comfort Plus for $99 more, (each or both?) I'm sure you'll be more comfortable.

Icelandair stops in Iceland. DH likes that, he can get out and stretch. It interrupts my sleep but I can live with it. Plus one time we stayed in Iceland 3 days, no extra cost on the airfare and had a lovely trip extension, wonderful place to visit. The other time we just changed planes and onward to Europe, easy.

So we have flown Icelandair twice now, very comfortable but three seats across, so last time we reserved an aisle for DH (so he could get up and stretch) and a window for me to sleep against, worked great for us and we even had an empty seat between us by luck. This was only a 5 hr flight, Boston to Reykjavik.

We have never used HAL air, sorry I can't help you there but others will. I believe that if there's an issue with the flight being late and you'd miss your ship HAL will cover the misconnection arrangements. Frankly I'd rather plan extra time in Amsterdam, a great place to visit and stay there at least a couple of days before the cruise, then train down to Rotterdam.

I also check http://www.seatguru for info. But you'll need the flight number which will give you the plane type. Happy planning, sounds like you have a lot of good options, and a wonderful trip to look forward to! m--

We always do DIY, but next time I'm going to look into the HAL airline program.

We usually fly Delta, but for our next flight we are going with American.

Every flight I have booked for the last few years, has been re-scheduled by the airline at least once. Our upcoming flight to FLL on American, has been rescheduled 3 times, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a 4th time before we leave in mid January. We originally were going to arrive in FLL at 6pm (staying at a hotel for a night before our cruise), then it was changed to 8:30pm, now it 11:15pm.

I know that if the changes they make are unacceptable, I can call them and they will attempt to find something better. But if you read the fine print, they have the right to cancel your flight and refund your money if you don't accept the change.

What really irritates me is I know why they do this, they are moving me from a flight that is full to one that needs more passengers.

I was going to check with HAL next time, hoping that they wouldn't do this rescheduling.

CLE to FLL

I used them once and paid about 70% more and did not know which airline until a week before.They used one airline going and a diferent one coming back.On going they used American CLE-MIA and a bus from MIA to the port.Coming back they used Continental(United) FLL-CLE No choice seating etc.

I booked on Delta online for my next Cruise in January (CAK - FLL) and chose economy seating.Since I booked I have been checking periodically and Delta has automatic offers to upgrade to 1st.Class or Comfort.The prices are different each time I sign in.One time I checked and they offered Comfort for $10.xx per person each way so I jumped on it and paid the $40.xx and changed my seats,all online.You can change seats at any time and it shows available seating layouts.

I haven't used Hal's flights but book our own. Don't know if you have access to BA or KLM. BA has at times some great sales, we got one shoulder season for premium economy. It is much more comfortable. I am not familiar with Delta.

Rotterdam is a beautiful city and worth a day or two. It is an easy connection from the Amsterdam airport. It is easy to visit The Hague and Delft from there as well. Kinderdik is really interesting as well.

We are not big fans of Delta or United for longer, overseas flights. If we can get BA, KLM, or Lufthansa we always select them. We find the service, food, etc to be much better. You also need to double check for code shares. You could book on Delta and find that you are actually on a partner operated air plane.

Price is based on demand. We have had great prices 90 days out, 30 days out, and even 10 days out. But we would not chance under 30 if we had a cruise. It really is a crap shoot. No hard and fast rules. Just know what a good price is and be prepared to jump on it immediately.

One of the challenges with cruise air, any cruise line, is fare code. You are just a likely to get a consolidator fare code on cruise line air as you are from a on line consolidator. Not too much risk in summer of if you are flying in early. Not so great in winter if you are flying through snow zones. Fare codes determines the order of how the airline deals with re-scheds, cancellations etc. The lower the fare code, the closer you are to the bottom of the proverbial list.

We have had one of two very good cruise line fares. The other item we noticed on one cruise line was that it was less expensive to book two one way tickets on different airlines than it was to purchase a return ticket on either of the airlines. So it pays to shop, not only for airline, price, but also for connection point. We avoid London Heathrow whenever possible-just our preference. Not very keen on CDG either.

Thanks for all the quick replies!

I have been checking lots of options, always referring to SeatGuru. Alas, KLM no longer flies BOS-AMS; the so-called KLM flights on that route are operated by Delta.

I'm leaning toward Icelandair. The stop in KEF means no flight is more than five hours or so. Three of the four flights have 2-3-2 seating (B767), and all four have 32" pitch.

It was interesting to read that Delta sometimes offers upgrades to Comfort Plus for very little money. Right now, buying the upgrades at $99, it would cost us $800 more to fly Delta Comfort Plus than Icelandair economy. I can think of lots of things to do with $800, both at home and on vacation.

I would see what the cost is through HAL. We saved almost $500 pp over what I was able to find myself and I picked the flights while on the phone with my pcc.

I would see what the cost is through HAL. We saved almost $500 pp over what I was able to find myself and I picked the flights while on the phone with my pcc.

Did the same, except through my TA, including choosing a KLM flight and upgrading seat.

The cruise line fares can be very good...or they can be less attractive than booking your own. We always go early so the cruise line air advantage for us is only price.

We did a last minute RCI Rome-Barcelona cruise and we needed one way home from Barcelona.

The combination of last minute cruise fare and an excellent one way fare home with perfect connections made it something that we could not pass up. We booked both 20 days out and had a choice of about 8 different airlines/prices/routes. You never know.

The last time I used HAL air I found that if I paid my cruise fare up front (not wait until final payment date - which isn't tough in these zero savings interest times) I was given a code which enabled me to pick among several airlines and book my own flight and pick my own seats . The alternative if I did not pay up front would be HAL would book flight and I would find out just before sailing. This was in 2014 for a Prinsendam T/A - the one way fare to Rome was about $450 per - much better than anything else available.

We have never booked air on HAL. We tried to do it on Princess without any success.

Celebrity and RCI's air program enable you to go in and check air before you book, while you book, or after you book. Typically they give you at least six different airlines/fares/routes. It is almost like searching for fares on matrix it. One way and returns.

What we especially like about it is that the air has to end or start at your point of debarkation/embarkation. It is not linked to you home city. So, we needed one way air from FLL to Costa Rica two weeks after disembarking our TA in order to carry on with our extended trip. No issue booking this with their cruise air. Though it had to be booked prior to our embarkation date.

Not certain if this is how HAL air works. I think our TA gave us one quote but we chose to do our own. We found Princess air to be very restrictive, very user unfriendly.

From what I'm reading HAL air has improved significantly over the years. When we first started cruising we used HAL air a couple of times but discovered pretty quickly back then that the flights were at off times and more like red-eye flights, sometimes on smaller commuter lines, frequent flyer status was not recognized and miles did not accrue, and often the cost was higher than what we could book ourselves. Sounds like some or most of those drawbacks are gone but in the meantime we've established ourselves as advanced status frequent flyers with at least one major line that services our home airport in San Antonio and pretty the whole world from there. We accrue miles, get free baggage regardless of class of service, and get frequent low cost or free upgrades. For us I see no reason to use cruise line air.

You can also try searching for one way fares for the two directions and see if you find a better combination. something

I would at least ask for an airfare quote from HAL.

We saved $500 each using HAL air into Athens and home from Ft. Lauderdale on our October transatlantic, did not buy transfers. We had our choice of flight itineraries, ended up with American to Athens and Delta from Ft. Lauderdale. I was able to choose seats, but those assignments disappeared somehow, still ended up with aisle seats farther back in the plane. Our return flights were changed, giving us an extra hour to our Atlanta layover.

I can't help with your questions about frequent flyer miles and don't know if you are protected any better with HAL air. We have always flown home on disembarkation day, but know that things that happen.

Consolidater isn't a term I'm sure we are thinking of same thing. When I've named my own price on Priceline I did save money. I think I could request aisle or window but not sure. I've booked on Expedia many times and chosen my seat on any airline I've booked. And if I have the airlines credit card I still get the benefits with Expedia.

From my experience, cruise line air fares within the US are not a great deal. One way overseas, however, is a great deal. Booked an overseas one way flight with the cruise line last year and paid less than 20% of what the airlines were charging for the same route. Definitely check with HAL to see what they are charging.

HAL air isn't in charge of flight changes, so you have the same risk of flight time changed, cancelled or whatever as anyone else. When you book through a third party (which is what all of the cruise airline vendors are, as well as consolidators, Priceline, Orbitz, etc.), you are also giving up control of what happens if something goes sideways with your flights. You most likely need to contact your vendor and they will be the ones who have to act with the airline. They cannot guarantee getting you on the next flight nor into your port that day. It will be maybe the next flight that has empty seats, which may not be for a day or two. Depending on the actual ticket (which is usually not relayed to you until very late in the process) you may be down on the re-accomodation totem pole if things go wrong. You see a "reservation", but no actual ticket that states the exact fare bucket they pulled for you and the restrictions associated with it. Seats may or may not be available to pick and are still subject to being taken away and/or moved, just like anyone else.

The only time I would consider using any cruise air vendor would be if I need a one-way fare and I cannot find something myself. Otherwise, I'll book directly with the airline.

Cruise lines have no control over air schedules. Choosing to book through the cruise line will have no impact on schedule changes.

Economy plus seats to Europe sell out well in advance on many routes. Gone are the days of upgrading your seats close to departure.

Business class seats to many European destinations are selling very well for 2017 spring and summer. We just struggled to find seats for next April, May.

We've taken many a flight to Europe on legacy airlines, then a couple years ago we changed our tour plans last minute. We booked a one way Iceland air for a June travel date and saved a lot compared to the last minute legacy prices. The seats were OK but I hated deplaning in Iceland in the middle of the night. There was no jetway, we deplaned in a driving rainstorm to wait in long immigration lines. Then waited for our connection to mainland Europe.

You are better off paying more for a nonstop from Boston.

Booked with HAL for my TA in the fall. The one way fares online were crazy expensive. The HAL fare for the exact flights I wanted was about 25% of what I could buy online. Amazing.

I also booked through HAL for the FLL flight in the spring. I know I will get miles credit with American because I have already been able to link it to my FF number on the American website with my locator #. The American site also let me choose a seats.

I still need to solve the trip and medical insurance question for the Europe trip. With the HAL flight booking they are included in the HAL insurance but it is not very good on the medical side so I am pricing others and you only get 90% of your cost back.

Booked with HAL for my TA in the fall. The one way fares online were crazy expensive. The HAL fare for the exact flights I wanted was about 25% of what I could buy online. Amazing.

I also booked through HAL for the FLL flight in the spring. I know I will get miles credit with American because I have already been able to link it to my FF number on the American website with my locator #. The American site also let me choose a seats.

 

I still need to solve the trip and medical insurance question for the Europe trip. With the HAL flight booking they are included in the HAL insurance but it is not very good on the medical side so I am pricing others and you only get 90% of your cost back.

Just because you could enter your FF # does not mean you will earn credits. I believe it also has to do with the actual fare bucket HAL pulls for your ticket. Some airlines base your credits earned based on that specific fare: a Y ticket could own 100%, a T fare 20% and an E fare 0%. Just a heads up here to look that up.

Just because you could enter your FF # does not mean you will earn credits. I believe it also has to do with the actual fare bucket HAL pulls for your ticket. Some airlines base your credits earned based on that specific fare: a Y ticket could own 100%, a T fare 20% and an E fare 0%. Just a heads up here to look that up.

This is true, some ticket classes earn no mileage or air credits. Cruise lines usually buy low ticket class through consolidators and a percentage of those seats will not qualify.

We use consolidators from time to time and a better price is worth more than mileage.

You can also book directly with an airline, get a killer price then learn the fare class will not earn miles and you will be the lowest on the totem pole for possible bumps. Bumps rarely happen as airlines offer a lot to anyone willing to take a bump.

We booked our air with HAL for our Med cruise in April. We paid $1450.00 for TWO passengers flying with British Airways. Toronto-Rome-Amsterdam-Toronto. British Airways price online is $3750.00 for TWO. We saved a bundle of money booking with HAL!

We selected our seats on all flights at no charge. These were all Flex fare rates, so we don't have to pay until February's final payment. However, to lock in that price, we paid the cruise and air in full two weeks ago. Until paid in full, HAL can raise the price of air according to the airlines pricing.

First time using Flight Ease and very pleased so far.

We have had very good luck booking one ways with BA. We have done a one way Barcelona-Calgary on cruise air plus several one way Toronto-Istanbul flights from a consolidator. All of these one way flights were priced below any competition and/or had better routes. The BA web prices in all instances were 2-3 times higher in price. We were able to select our seats on BA. Some people have mentioned that this is not possible until you check in for the flight. This was not our experience.

Last year we went to Bangkok from Calgary. We used Matrix IT to find the flights. It provides schedules and the relevant fare codes. We called AC to book one. Their price was $500 higher for the same flights/same flight codes. We booked on an on line travel site. Same flights, same fare codes, same Aeroplan credits. What we like about Matrix IT is that they provide those fare codes.